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3 Tips for Cooking Fast Low Calorie Recipes

Posted by Matt on February 1st, 2010 at 05:13pm

Between the stresses of life and the temptations of food, maintaining a balanced low calorie diet can be a constant uphill battle. For those who want to go on a balanced low calorie diet, or those who want to eat healthier meals, we here at FaveDiets.com have compiled our list of the 12 Best Free Easy Low Calorie Recipes. To help you cook nutritious low calorie dishes, here are three super tips for cooking fast low calorie recipes.

Spices

Spices are the perfect way to add flavor to any recipe without adding calories. Spices have almost no calories, as opposed to oil and butter, which can contributes sometimes hundreds of calories to a dish. If using spice blends, stick with ones that have no salt and no sugar.

Nonstick Cookware

Nonstick cookware lets you cook recipes without adding additional fat and calories to the mix. When cooking with traditional cookware, you usually have to add a fat, normally oil or butter, to keep food from sticking to the surface. That bit of fat may not be much, but it does contribute to the calories in the dish. Nonstick cookware lets you avoid adding fat to the cooking surface without fear of sticking. For fast low calorie recipes with traditional cookware, use nonfat cooking spray.

Substitutions

Giving up your favorite foods while dieting is a recipe for disaster, because it makes you more likely to break your diet goals and go back to eating calorie-laden foods. Instead of depriving yourself, just substitute out high calorie ingredients like sugar and butter for lighter alternatives.
Sugar – Use a no calorie sweetener instead.
Eggs – Substitute two egg whites for every one egg.
Heavy Cream – Evaporated skim milk works just as well but with less calories. Evaporated skim milk is also a great substitute for half and half.
Butter – Use an oil-based butter substitute. Still has calories, but much less than butter.
Oil – If a sweet baking recipe calls for oil, use applesauce or well-blended dried fruit instead.